How to Find Time for Pleasure Reading as a Busy University Student

Over the last few years, my love for reading has continued to grow. Through discovering apps like Storygraph and Goodreads, I have rediscovered a love for reading that existed as a youngster.

Of course, my rediscovered love for reading coincided with being a university student. Maintaining that love for quote on quote pleasure reading whilst balancing academic reading was something I had to achieve. It is definitely something that has worked well. I regularly read over 40 books a year and today I want to share some tips with you all about how to find time to read for pleasure as a university student. Let’s get to it!

1) Separate pleasure reading from academic reading

I believe that maintaining a separation of pleasure reading from academic reading will help you to find the time. I didn’t do any pleasure reading whilst I was at university during my undergraduate degree. Even now as a postgraduate student doing an online degree, I don’t read for pleasure during my contracted hours at university. I like to think of it as a hobby.

2) Set daily reading goals

Setting reading goals can be a big motivation if you want to improve the amount in which you read on a daily basis. These don’t have to be big goals. They can be something as simple as reading 2 chapters a day or finishing a book by a certain date. Goals will motivate you though.

3) Incorporate pleasure reading into your daily routine

One of the ways that I am able to read for pleasure every day is by having it incorporated into my daily routine. Every night, well most nights, I will take the time to read a couple of chapters of the book I’m reading at that moment in time. Making it a part of a routine means it’s almost like a habit. This leads onto the next point.

4) Include reading in your habit tracker

If you have a habit tracker, include reading for pleasure as one of your habits. You get the motivation of being able to tick it off when you’ve done it which is always nice!

And that’s it! I really hope that these tips are useful for you. As always, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to read this post and I will see you soon for another one!

Beth